America’s (Most Memed) Team is back in the headlines again, and as has so often been the case over the last 30 years, it’s not for anything good. With Micah Parsons holding out in camp in Dallas, conventional wisdom was that he and the team would come to an agreement eventually.
Sure, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is stubborn and bad at being a general manager, but when push comes to shove he always buckles and pays his big names, usually on far more player-friendly deals than if he’d just made an arrangement earlier and avoided all the disruption. What he would certainly not do is trade one of the best players in the league away for some theoretically-good players later.
Jerry Did What!?
To the shock of nearly everyone who follows football, the mad man actually did it and shipped Parsons off to the Green Bay Packers for defensive tackle Kenny Clark and the Packers’ 2026 and 2027 first-round picks. At first blush, this seems like a fairly meager return for one of the few players who can lay claim to being the most impactful defensive players in football.
When you dig down a bit further, however, you’ll find that… it gets even worse. While two first-round picks and a good, but not nearly as good, player are already a poor return for a proven game-changer, first-round picks are also the most variably valuable assets teams can trade. No round sees a greater disparity for the demand and expectations at the top of the round and the bottom, and with the Packers coming off an 11-6 record and now adding Parsons, the odds are that those picks are likely to be very late in the first.
With Parsons in town the Packers are now third-favorites to win the NFC outright on sportsbooks, while a bet on the Packers to miss the playoffs, and have a pick below the 20s, nets you nearly triple your bet if it hits. There is every chance Jones will have shipped Parsons for picks that are ultimately barely better than an early second rounder.
What Micah Parsons Returns On The Madden Trade Block
Before diving into our role as the luckiest GM in the world in Green Bay, we wanted to see just what Madden thinks the Cowboys should have gotten in return for Parsons based on his worth. There are two key takeaways from the experiment, and neither is good for Dallas.
First, there were offers from teams offering more valuable returns if the Cowboys were looking to cash Parsons in for ready-now talent in addition to future draft capital. Most notably, the Chiefs came in offering not only high-upside second-year WR Xavier Worthy, but also a third first round pick to go with him. While it’s true the Chiefs present a similar “they’re going to be late rounders anyhow” concern as the Packers, with three chances they at least offer an additional chance for a late pick to work out or a bad Chiefs season to net a high selection.
The second big takeaway is that a lot of teams were willing to offer even less than the Packers gave in the real world. While this may make it seem like they did a relatively good job of maximizing return, when everyone seems to agree that return was still criminally short of justifiable what it lays bare is that the idea of trading Parsons at all was always bound to end in disaster. The NFL is a league where top-shelf talent wins games, and shipping off a proven dominant force for some hope and prayers is not a recipe for maximizing the talent on the field.
How Much Is Needed To Make The Madden Cowboys Accept The Trade
To see just how lopsided Madden truly finds this trade to be, we looked at two different approaches. First, we offered the exact pieces received by Dallas on the trade block for Green Bay to see what the virtual Cowboys would be willing to give up to acquire what the real-world Cowboys brought in. Unsurprisingly, Parsons was not in the package Dallas put forth, opting instead for 88 OVR left guard Tyler Smith, a third-round pick this year, a fifth-round pick next year, and the Cowboys’ next two seventh-round selections. Far from the overwhelming return of a perennial Defensive Player of the Year contender.
Next, we crossed over to the other side of the equation to see what the Packers had to offer for Madden Dallas to accept, with a focus on draft picks. After all, as Jones pointed out in the press conference following the trade, draft picks have the potential to turn into a world class player like Micah Parsons!
Unfortunately for our Packers, we did not start the year with enough draft resources to actually get a deal done. Even shipping all three available first round picks and filling out the two slots left in the trade builder with the Packers’ next two second rounders the Cowboys still wouldn’t bite. Instead, another trade was needed to bring in an additional first round pick, and with four in the bundle Dallas almost accepted. Finally, filling the last spot with a second rounder, the final package required to prise away Parsons was Clark, for first rounders and a second round pick.
What Madden Predicts For The New Look Packers And Cowboys
The schedule for the NFL season has conspired to make this trade a particularly spicy one as Green Bay are not only the last team to eliminate the Cowboys, having actually been the team to end half of the Cowboys’ last six playoff runs over the last decade, but also will be coming to town for a week four match-up where Parsons will don the green and gold in Jerry World.
In Madden, it proved to be a very happy homecoming for Parsons, as the Packers dominated the Cowboys 41-17, while Parsons posted a game-high two sacks. That was a harbinger of the good season to come for Parsons, as he and the Packers claimed the second spot in a competitive NFC North by going 11-6, ultimately progressing to the Divisional Round of the playoffs before falling to division rivals Detroit. On an individual front, all Parsons did was better the current NFL sack record by recording 23 sacks as a Packer.
Dallas, conversely, failed to make the playoffs as their 8-9 record left them just on the outside looking in. While the season was not a complete disaster for the Cowboys that almost makes the trade hurt even worse, as it’s hard to not wonder if having a sack-record caliber Parsons would have been the difference between another disappointing year and a return to the postseason.
If you’re a Cowboys fan hoping that Madden will come with some good news to take the sting off this trade, there is not a lot of joy to be found here. Just as the public response has been largely one of the Cowboys getting fleeced, Madden seems to agree both in its vastly different value judgments on the trade itself and the resulting on-field performance of both sides. Do you agree with Madden, or do you think the Cowboys and Jerry have secretly pulled off a coup with this deal?
